N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined nearly 20 other states in filing a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday, three months after the federal agency terminated hundreds of flood mitigation grants in April.
Last week, Tropical Storm Chantal may have foreshadowed the future costs communities will pay if they can’t complete these projects — and how the federal government’s role in preparing communities for the future risks of climate change-fueled flooding to their infrastructure could be curtailed.
FEMA had awarded Hillsborough about $6 million to relocate its river pump station — nearly half the central North Carolina town’s total water and sewer fund, according to Mayor Mark Bell. Pump stations do exactly what their name implies: They pump water up so it can be transported somewhere else, such as a treatment facility or a reservoir…